"Heated Rivalry is becoming such a global sensation, Russian fans are defying the country's LGBTQ+ propaganda laws just to watch it. The Canadian romantic sports drama series has quickly become one of the biggest television sensations since its release in November. Based on an instalment of author Rachel Reid's Game Changers series, the show follows two rival professional hockey players as they develop feelings for one another and enjoy a multi-year-long secret love story."
"It is so popular, in fact, that it has broken through the Russian Federation's homophobic censorship laws and has become a sensation. Writing for Vanity Fair, Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar wrote that the show has enjoyed extraordinary success in the eastern-European country despite its absence from any Russian streaming platform. Zygar pointed instead to Kinopoisk, the Russian equivalent of Rotten Tomatoes. Heated Rivalry currently has a rating of 8.6, one of the highest ratings on the site, from over 30,385 viewers."
"Telegram channels dedicated to Russian fans of the series have also seen mass interest, with some reaching over 34,000 subscribers. While it's difficult to know how much of this interest is legitimate or quantify how widespread the Heated Rivalry fandom is across Russia, the show has definitively broken through the country's gay propaganda laws. Initially passed in 2013, Russia's law banning LGBTQ+ content, colloquially known as the gay propaganda law, was brought under the pretences of protecting children from propaganda for nontraditional sexual relationships."
Heated Rivalry is a Canadian romantic sports drama released in November that follows two rival professional hockey players who develop a secret, multi-year love story. The series has earned high audience scores, including a 9.1/10 IMDb rating and a 98% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, and is widely discussed in 2026. The series has attracted significant interest in Russia, achieving an 8.6 Kinopoisk rating from over 30,385 viewers and spawning Telegram fan channels with tens of thousands of subscribers. The show's popularity has circulated despite Russia's LGBT content restrictions, originally enacted in 2013 and expanded in 2022 to cover all ages.
Read at www.thepinknews.com
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